Our idea was born on Sunday June 21, 2015, Father’s Day.

Since that time we have been working on Growler Chill’s design and engineering with input from craft beer drinkers and brewers from all over the country. By conducting focus groups with these craft beer enthusiasts and asking head brewers for honest critiques, Growler Chill emerged as the innovative device that we’ve presented to you today.

Almost every beer product you come across is led by a team of beer enthusiasts. Make no mistake, we do love beer, but there’s more to our story.

We are problem solvers, we are innovators, we are creative pioneers, we think different. We are entrepreneurs who have learned the most from our failures and appreciate how they led to our successes. We are community minded. We #drinklocal because it’s the right thing to do. We are homebrewers, and outside of our day job we are friends. We believe in not just doing something, but doing it right.

Our Founder and creator, Randy Hollister is no stranger to the start up world. Having piloted two successful tech startups, Randy has taught us that at the core of every great innovation is a problem that needs solving, a need that must be met and an urgency to swiftly answer the demand. It is this philosophy that has fast-tracked our development and allowed our team to keep our eye on the prize.

Randy’s first successful start-up, LeadRouter which was sold to a Fortune 500 company, was awarded the prestigious Inman Innovator award for technological advancement in the real estate industry in 2005. He actually had to share his innovation award that year with a co-winner ..… Google Maps! The technology was also tapped for the CIO Magazine “Bold 100” award.

Prompted by a suggestion from his younger son, Randy conceptualized what may very well be his greatest career accomplishment yet. After some quick tooling and a modest sketch, his idea child, Growler Chill, became an innovative way to solve the growler perishability problem that is limiting sales and ultimately the enjoyment of craft beer.

Acting on his vision to disrupt the craft beer industry, Randy quickly assembled a team of professionals to bring Growler Chill to market. Today, he is joined by a talented group of creatives and engineers who, over the last 18 months have worked tirelessly challenging each iteration to perfection. Complemented by an in-house manufacturing and distribution expert, and a seasoned brand strategist, Growler Chill is now poised to drastically change the landscape of craft beer growler sales. Our office is located in downtown Myrtle Beach just 3 blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, and right around the corner from two of the best watering holes on the beach; New South Brewing and Atlas Tap House (where we frequently hold R&D meetings).

We launched Growler Chill on the popular crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, at Midnight on January 25, 2017. With a funding goal of $175,000, we reached 10{569b89fe829ae97b3983c8c2281113f64ff58941f117eab6b958ea4c0d5a95c7} of that goal within the first 10 minutes of sales, and achieved over 20{569b89fe829ae97b3983c8c2281113f64ff58941f117eab6b958ea4c0d5a95c7} of our funding in the first hour. We crashed through our funding ceiling within 19 hours of being live. On Day 1 of our campaign we were selected by Kickstarter Staff Picks and prominently placed on the platform’s homepage as a “Project We Love”. Our campaign closed on February 28, 2017. In 33 short days, 1,793 Backers pledged over $688,343 to bring Growler Chill to market. We are proudly ranked among the top 3{569b89fe829ae97b3983c8c2281113f64ff58941f117eab6b958ea4c0d5a95c7} of projects successfully funded in the history of Kickstarter.

PROTOTYPE GALLERY

Thank you to our family & friends who have supported us and cheered us on, and to these important people who also helped bring Growler Chill to life.

Brandipity Advertising, for piloting our brand development and identity and most importantly for creating the inspiring design that brought Growler Chill to life.

New South Brewing, for opening up their brewery and allowing us to learn and gain invaluable insight from their brewers and loyal customers

CRG Homes, for making us at home by opening up two of their exquisitely designed oceanfront houses for the filming of our Kickstarter video shoot.

To our Kickstarter Backers, a sincere thank you for every dollar pledged and for helping us spread the word. Because of you, we are able to bring Growler Chill to life.

To our loyal Santa IOU purchasers, thank you for being our earliest of early birds!

Our faithful family and friends for their unconditional understanding when we failed to make it home for dinner, didn’t return calls and emails, and missed events in the interest of making our dream a reality.

Atlas Tap House, for hosting our weekly staff meetings and educating us on their unmatched selection of craft beers. And a special thank you to Arlette for being our biggest cheerleader and always taking such good care of us; and Britt “talent scout extraordinaire”!

Scott Smallin Photography, for taking our very first product shots and making us look like a million dollars (on short notice, too)

To the THOUSANDS of craft beer enthusiasts across the country who have followed us on social media, sent us emails of encouragement, called to ask how it’s going and have helped us spread the word. This is for you! (and a special shout out to Russel in Cape Canveral and Lt. Dan in CT)

And especially toElla, for spending her weekends at breweries playing cards and board games, for napping under her mom’s desk while we worked around the clock the last few days leading up to launch, and for cheering us along every step of the way.